With a SAT score of 2,360 out of a maximum possible 2,400, Pulkit Agarwal (18), hitherto a class XII student of The Doon School, Dehradun (TDS, estb.1935), has received admission and scholarship offers valued at $61,000 (Rs.38.8 lakh) from 15 US universities including seven Ivy League varsities ” Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, UPenn, Brown, Cornell and Dartmouth. SAT (formerly the Scholastic Aptitude Test) is the common admission exam administered worldwide by the College Board, a US-based not-for-profit organisation, for undergrad admissions into American and other universities around the world.

The elder of two children of Pilibhit (Uttar Pradesh)-based medical practitioners Dr. Peeyush, a radiologist, and pathologist Dr. Neelam Agarwal, Pulkit has accepted the Harvard offer and will join the top-ranked university™s economics and politics undergrad programme in September.

An academic topper who averaged 95 percent in the class X CISCE board exam, Pulkit finished school as debates captain and was adjudged the best EFL (English as a foreign language) speaker at the World Debating Championship, Lithuania, 2014. This all-rounder also dabbles in theatre and plays cricket.

Admitted into TDS in 2009, Pulkit ascribes his super SAT score to the holistic education he received in the school, which is consistently rated as the country’s best all-boys boarding school in the annual EducationWorld India School Rankings. Doon’s time-tested academic learning and character building programmes develop students™ confidence and leadership qualities. Moreover the career counselling programme at Doon is excellent and helps us identify our aptitudes and submit detailed admission applications, says Pulkit in an unreserved endorsement of his alma mater.

Looking ahead to his four-year undergrad programme at Harvard, Pulkit is confident it will equip him to serve India on his return. œI want to apply my learning of public policy and government to help our country grow into a developed nation. There’s great potential in 21st century India. I want to help unlock it, he says.

Wind beneath your wings!

Bharati Thakore (Dehradun)